The actress and model writes about growing up and defining her sexuality on her own terms.
Actress and model, Emily Ratajkowski is known for always looking incredibly sexy and oozing with confidence wherever she goes. She has opened up in her latest article for Lenny Letter to discuss how she is not only aware of her own sexuality, but sexuality in general. It hasn’t always been this way however.
She describes her childhood and how her father used to call her a “baby woman” because of the size of her D-cup breasts even as a 12-year-old. She talks about different experiences with friends, teachers and family that made her feel like she had inadvertently done something wrong because of her body shape.
“In eighth grade, a vice principal snapped my bra strap in front of an entire room of my classmates and other teachers. She did it because the strap was falling out from my tank top and that broke the school’s dress code. When I was 13, a close family member came to see my performance in a play. I remember feeling pretty — tanned, wearing lip gloss and a red button-up ribbed top over my bra and a mod-style zip-up miniskirt from Forever 21. Our family member sobbed to my mother and me at dinner after; she was worried for me, worried about the looks I got from men, because I was wearing what I was wearing. I needed to protect myself, she explained.”
She goes on to explain that even though she was a young woman, still figuring out how to insert tampons, she was thrust into this position of self-awareness and forced to consider what kind of “message” she was sending when she wore certain outfits or acted in certain ways.
Ironically, when she became a model it became obvious that it was the people who were warning her about the injustices of the fashion industry who made her feel the most uncomfortable about her body and her womanhood, not the people who were capitalising from her good genes.
As she talks about her personal experiences she makes it super clear that she is hell bent on doing things her way, and taking ownership of her sexuality, her gender and her body.
“I refuse to live in this world of shame and silent apologies. Life cannot be dictated by the perceptions of others, and I wish the world had made it clear to me that people’s reactions to my sexuality were not my problems, they were theirs.”
Preach, sister!
Though, she still struggles to “find the space” where she does have all of the control, she drills it home that if we as women don’t at least try to honour our sexuality then we might not like where we as a society end up.
You can read the full article here and see a side of this incredibly beautiful and highly intelligent woman that you’ve never seen before.
Source: Cosmo Australia
Photos: Getty
Watch six things you need to know about Emily Ratajkowski:
